Friday, January 27, 2012

Frugal Friday: More than 100 Frugal Winter Family Activities

I'm always on the lookout for free or cheap activities to do with the kids - at all seasons of the year. Today I'll be listing activities specifically for winter since that's the season where I live. I hope this list inspires you with ideas so you can go and have some fun with your family!

Here's a picture we took last year of a really neat ice formation that we saw.

Cardboard Tree house - Our boys loved making this a few weeks ago. We actually made two and they have been well-played with. We go buy "guys" out of the vending machines at the grocery store for 25cents and use them to populate the tree house. They are little action figure aliens, bok choy boys, bugs and baby dinosaurs (my favorite). They are the cheapest and most played with toys in our house.

Winter night walks - our family loves to go on walks at night in the winter. Just bundle everyone up, pick a destination (a park or hill are our favorites) and walk. Enjoy the quiet, crisp night air. When you get home, make some hot chocolate and bundle up in blankets to warm everyone up.

Sledding - If you live where there is snow, sledding is a fun, cheap activity to do as a family. I have to admit, I think we enjoy it as much or more as the kids.

Cloud Dough - this looks kind of like "moon sand" but made at home out of flour and baby oil!

Make Snow Flakes - cheap, homemade fun! I love these 3-D ones - we made them last year and they were really easy and looked awesome.

The Penny Game - If you live in an area that has tall buildings, you might try out this game that we love to play in the winter. Find a building that has a large stairwell (we use one with 13 stair flights but 8-10 would be fine too). The stair flights have to be open in the center for this to work. Climb up the stairs (or take an elevator if you're lazy, but we usually do this game to get the winter wiggles out). Each family member selects a penny with a different year (that's how you'll distinguish between them). Then each of you drop your penny down the center of the stair well and then go down the stairs to find out who's went down the farthest. You can have prizes for whose went the farthest on one drop, who had the least number of drops to the bottom, etc. It's really fun.

Make a Snowman - or have a contest to see who can make the biggest or cutest or funniest snowman.